Joseph Addison Quotes

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Joseph Addison

Profession : Writer

Birth : May 1, 1672

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

Joseph Addison

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

Joseph Addison

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts; in a uniform manner.

Joseph Addison

The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the wars of elements, The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.

Joseph Addison

Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.

Joseph Addison

True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

Joseph Addison

The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover.

Joseph Addison

A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.

Joseph Addison

Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.

Joseph Addison

The utmost extent of man's knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.

Joseph Addison

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

Joseph Addison

Music, the greatest good that mortals know and all of heaven we have hear below.

Joseph Addison

Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed.

Joseph Addison

The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.

Joseph Addison

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.

Joseph Addison

Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.

Joseph Addison

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.

Joseph Addison

Better to die ten thousand deaths than wound my honor.

Joseph Addison

Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.

Joseph Addison

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.

Joseph Addison